LAS CRUCES - Doña Ana County Commissioner John Vasquez sparked a firestorm of criticism Friday after posting inflammatory comments toward a local resident via Facebook, part of a pattern of provocative remarks he's made online and in text messages.

The most-recent flap started Thursday evening after NM CAFé organizer Johana Bencomo questioned Vasquez on a now-deleted Facebook post he'd made about politicians endorsing other political candidates in races.

Vasquez responded with posts that, to many viewers, appeared to insult Bencomo's mother: "I Endorserd (sic) your mom but it didn't mean anything.. if you want to keep going.. Let's start..."

One Facebook reader responded saying he was confused as to why Bencomo's mother was being brought into the conversation.

Vasquez then claimed that "she sent me a private message asking for really wierd (sic) favors... I will have no part of it..."

Bencomo then chimed in, saying the comments were "insanely inappropriate."

Vasquez replied, saying "Your (sic) inappropriate. You should talk to your family members and ask them to have some decency."

At one point, Vasquez writes a sentence fragment: "They say you can take a girl out of the ghetto but"

Vasquez, a Democrat who took office at the start of 2017, has been at odds with many progressive Democrats during his year-long tenure on the County Commission, including when he backed the firing of former County Manager Julia Brown in April of last year. Vasquez has often has targeted progressives in online posts using name-calling and derogatory remarks.

Bencomo on Friday described Vasquez’s comments as “offensive,” “sexist” and “derogatory.”

“I took screenshots (of the comments) and chose to make them public on my own Facebook page because I just feel like as somebody who lives in this community, as a woman, I don’t think this is OK. I don’t think this behavior should be tolerated — for everybody but particularly for elected officials,” Bencomo told the Sun-News.

She maintained that her mother, who lives in another state, has never contacted Vasquez. “She has no idea who this man is (and) he has no idea who my mom is,” she said.

Vasquez said Friday that he had been referring to someone named “Martha Bencomo” who, he claimed, had reached out to him, via text, for an endorsement. (That is not the name of Bencomo’s mother.)

He was unable to provide proof of the purported text messages on Friday. However, he said he would be willing to show the messages to the Sun-News at a later date, and defended his remarks.

“If she doesn’t like my post, then she should not be trolling on my page,” he said, referring to Bencomo. “Furthermore, she had the option of just deleting me.”

He said he wrote the “ghetto” remark in reference to an immigration rally last year in which NM CAFé — and dozens of other activists — blocked streets to protest ICE raids in Las Cruces.

“It’s one thing to claim that you are defending the oppressed but when you become the oppressor, in doing so, you’re not better than those oppressing those in which you claim to defend,” he said. “I call those ghetto tactics.”

“If you don’t like my posts, you shouldn’t be trolling me,” he added.

'Aggressive text messages'

Vasquez has a history of clashing with NM CAFé, a faith-based activism group, and its female organizers.

In April 2017, Vasquez sent a series of demeaning text messages from his county cellphone to Sarah Silva, then the executive director of NM CAFé. Silva had initially contacted Vasquez, as a constituent, to express her disappointment in his decision to vote to terminate Brown as county manager.

“The next day,” Silva told the Sun-News, “I received six consecutive calls from him, all after 10 p.m., and then received several aggressive text messages attacking my character and not responding to the issue that I called him about or texted him about in the first place.”

In the messages, Vasquez told Silva, “I don’t think you’re capable to talking about Vision” and “Really..What have you done for our migrants…I doubt nothing…”

Silva said Vasquez had met with CAFé organizers when he was a county commission candidate in 2016. After the meeting, Silva said one of her female organizers raised concerns about Vasquez, saying he had used “suggestive behavior” and “suggestive language” when they were alone in CAFé’s office.

“She texted us,” Silva recalled, “and she did not feel safe.”

CAFé then established an informal rule that none of its organizers or community leaders would meet Vasquez alone, Silva said.

Vasquez confirmed to the Sun-News that he met with CAFé in 2016. However, he denied making "suggestive" remarks or behaving inappropriately.

Moreover, he said he felt disrespected in an incident after the meeting.

Vasquez, a 24-year Army veteran, said he mistakenly left his veteran's hat at the CAFé office. Later, he returned to retrieve it and said a CAFé staff member did not know the difference between a baseball cap and a veteran’s hat. Vasquez said he was "insulted" by the incident.

Silva said she wants Vasquez to apologize for his actions and hopes the County Commission will censure him.

“I want his behavior to be taken seriously and not hidden. I think there’s also a pattern of his party (Democrats) protecting him,” Silva said. “I seriously believe that that’s going to cause injury to somebody — physical, spiritual, mental injury, if it hasn’t already.”

She added: “This is about power and he wants to feel dominating, and that’s unacceptable.”

Bencomo, meanwhile, said: “With the current conversation that is happening around the #metoo movement and around sexual harassment, men in power, I think it is so important that we have this conversation locally in our very own community because it seems like we continue to tolerate his behavior.”

She added, “We shouldn’t tolerate any behavior from anyone like this, but especially not an elected official.”

Vasquez remained unapologetic and said “I’m not worried about repercussion.” He accused NM CAFé of being “too political” and suggested that nonprofits should not be engaging in political activity.

“The root of it is really political season. They have their Grisham supporters; I’m an Apodaca supporter,” he said, referring to New Mexico gubernatorial candidates Michelle Lujan Grisham and Jeff Apodaca. “This is getting really ugly.”

Commissioners, residents weigh in

Vasquez's remarks on the Facebook thread from Thursday sparked anger among a number of residents who responded to Bencomo's post. One said she was disappointed she'd voted for him. Others said the remarks were unprofessional and inappropriate.

Antoinette Reyes, a Democratic candidate for the District 1 County Commission seat, challenged Vasquez over his comments.

"You tend to take your 'jokes' to the extreme with mostly women and those you consider progressive," she wrote. "All she (Bencomo) did was ask you a question. Talking about someone's family is a childish, very low blow and then to keep on the bit, seriously? You can do better than that."

Reyes told the Sun-News she thinks Vasquez's outbursts online tend to be a knee-jerk reaction to people who he perceives as opposing him and they tend to be aimed more so at women than men. But men at times have been the recipients, too. She thinks Vasquez is engaging in "mean-spirited jokes" and "doesn't always mean what he says." But it is unprofessional and sends the wrong message, she said.

"I think when he behaves that way or does things like that, it kind of hurts the constituents in his district," she said. "It turns people off and makes people not want to work with him, even if the project is something they want to do."

County Commission Chairman Ben Rawson said he hadn't heard about the situation until contacted by the Sun-News. He said he didn't feel like he could comment without researching what happened, including speaking with the parties involved.

"I'll certainly look into it and evaluate his statements against our code of conduct," he said.

County Commissioner Ramon Gonzalez said Friday he doesn't have a Facebook page and hadn't heard about the remarks made by Vasquez. He said he believes elected officials do have the same First Amendment rights other people do but should be careful about what they say. A lot of times, elected officials field harsh criticism from members of the public, but they shouldn't respond in like manner.

"Any derogatory things — I don't think you need to be making," he said. "We need to be very professional about how we conduct ourselves."

Gonzalez said he doesn't think it's a good idea for public officials to have a Facebook page because it's too easy to post something they might later regret.

County Commissioner Billy Garrett does have a Facebook page but said he's not very active on it. He also hadn't heard about Vasquez's remarks.

"I have occasionally heard comments about things people have been concerned with, but I haven't seen anything myself," he said.

Garrett said "civility is one of the most important things we should be fostering, particularly in today's political environment.

"If there are things that are being said that are not in that vein, then I would be very concerned about that," he said. "I'd say I hope that if there is concern, that people do talk to him about it, and he does take that seriously."

Garrett noted that the county's code of conduct calls for elected officials to treat the public, county staff members and other commissioners with respect.

In the event of the code being breached, "there is potentially a way for that to be addressed by a complaint being made to the chair of the commission," he said. "I'm not suggesting at this point that that's needed, but I think that it's important to know that we do have a process and procedure that can be employed if it's warranted."

County Commissioner Isabella Solis declined to comment Friday.

Criticizing another progressive candidate

Monday, Bernie Digman, a member of a county volunteer fire department, posted a photo on Facebook of emergency vehicles at a crash scene on Baylor Canyon Road.

On that thread, Vasquez made a comment aimed at former state Sen. Steve Fischmann, a Talavera resident and progressive candidate for the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission who has opposed an El Paso Electric Co. substation planned for the Talavera area. Vasquez voted with other commissioners recently to seek an official review of the substation project. But he also criticized residents — naming Fischmann specifically — claiming they were using "propaganda" in a petition to oppose it.

Vasquez, in an apparent reference to the substation controversy, posted on the Facebook thread of the crash-scene photo: "maybe it's the 100 foot towers that the fish was lying about to get signatures." The post included a laughing emoji.

Later on, authorities said that seven people, most of whom were children, had been injured in the crash that was the subject of the photo.

Diana Alba Soular may be reached at 575-541-5443, dalba@lcsun-news.com or @AlbaSoular on Twitter. Carlos Andres López can be reached 575-541-5453, carlopez@lcsun-news.com or @carlopez_los on Twitter.

Editor's note: This version of the story includes a 2016 account of an incident at CAFé's offices.